Politics as Usual

Bucks County voters will be seeing a familiar name on the ballot in the election to succeed retiring Republican congressman Mike Fitzpatrick.

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His brother, Brian Fitzpatrick, a former FBI supervisor in units that handle public corruption and election crime cases, announced Thursday he'll be running for the seat his sibling has held for four terms.

"People have lost faith in the system. Corruption is rampant in our nation's capital and Harrisburg," Fitzpatrick said in a statement. "And all the while, too many politicians prefer to be political ideologues, rather than the problem solvers we need."

Fitzpatrick enters a crowded race for the 8th District seat. Other Republicans include state Rep. Scott Petri, former Bucks County Commissioner Andy Warren, attorney Dean Malik and neuropsychologist Marc Duome.

On the Democratic side, state Rep. Steve Santarsiero is facing off against Shaughnessy Naughton, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination in 2014.

— Laura Olson

Politics, snow affect attorney general race

The race for the Democratic nomination for Pennsylvania attorney general got less crowded last week when two candidates dropped out. It might have thinned more over the weekend if the state Democratic Party hadn't canceled its winter meeting in Hershey due to the threat of snow.

The meeting is when party representatives pick their preferred candidates for statewide elections. As a result, some candidates tend to drop out. The meeting has not been re-scheduled.

The two candidates who dropped out Wednesday were Jack Stollsteimer, a former assistant U.S. attorney from Delaware County, and Dave Fawcett, an Allegheny County lawyer.

The field now includes Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli, Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala, Montgomery County Commissioner Josh Shapiro and the incumbent, Kathleen Kane.

But Kane could be out of a job before the primary election if the state Senate, on a two-thirds majority, votes her out of office and Gov. Tom Wolf signs the ouster notice. The pending Senate vote is over the indefinite suspension of Kane's law license, which she is trying to get back.

If history is a guide, the bill will go nowhere, causing the same lawmakers or others to try it again with the same result.

The latest incarnation was introduced by Sen. Elder Vogel Jr., R-Beaver, and was approved last week by the Senate State Government Committee. His bill would cut the 50-member Senate to 45 and the 203-member House to 153. The bill now goes to the full Senate, where a vote has not been scheduled.

Reducing the size of the Legislature is not as easy as passing a bridge-naming bill. A bridge bill takes a majority vote in one session. A reduction bill requires the House and Senate to approve the bill twice over two legislative sessions, after which it goes to the voters.

That's never happened, although Vogel says voters want it.

"When I first ran for office, one consistent message I heard from voters was that the size and scope of the Pennsylvania General Assembly was far too large and wasted too much taxpayer money," Vogel said. "I made a commitment to the voters and I will continue working on this until we get it through the process and onto the ballot as a referendum."